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In The Devil's Arithmetic, why does Hannah say, "Thinking is dangerous. In this place she would not think, only do"?

Hannah says this quotation during the rising action of The Devil’s Arithmetic when she finds herself immersed in the life of the concentration camp during the Holocaust in the 1940s.  Within the context of her reverie, Hannah has been forced onto a train into one of the Nazi concentration camps.  Hanna is forced to do backbreaking work and tattooed and shaved against her will.  Hannah realizes that many people are dying within the Nazi gas chambers.  It is an inhuman environment where a person is not really able to “live” but only able to “survive.”  The things that Hannah is experiencing are so horrific that she decides not to think about them because “thinking is dangerous.”  Too much deep thought could cause Hannah to fall into despair about what is happening.  Instead, “in this place she would not think, only do.”  In other words, she would carry on the actions of life: eat, work, and sleep.  Hannah decides to do this in order to survive the Holocaust as the character of Chaya.

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